"ICT has created unprecedented linkages between public and private institutions, governments, citizens and corporations. It has changed nearly all aspects of modern society, and seen a redesign of traditional structures, leading to developments such as eGovernment and digital education. ... But ICT cannot exist in isolation. It is not synonymous with technology, and African governments that consider their ICT policy a technology policy should think again. While it is vital for development, it is not a substitute for technological advancement in a broader sense." Ndubuisi Ekekwe Sci.Dev 2012.03-02
In the area of planning and management, the toughest challenges may be in identifying the target group of farmers where these efforts can make the most difference and in determining the best form of communication to provide access to the information within budgetory constraints.
In terms of risk management, determination of areas at risk must be followed up with information about availability of tools (seeds, fertilizers, machinery). This should include product catalogues of suppliers and comparitive reviews of products based on sustainability models.
Bruce CampbellClimate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)Denmark
One objective of climate smart agriculture is adaptation. How do land use planners, farmers and service providers think about changing whole farming systems in response to climate change? (Australia is quite advanced in thinking about "transfromative adaptation"). One possible tool is something that is now being worked on - analogue sites.
It is an internet-based application coupled with GIS that provides support to the process of decision-making and evaluation of adaptation options. With a click on the computer on your site/landscape of interest you can find "analogue sites", sites you can visit to get some idea of the future climate and farming systems that may be relevent to your site. The zero order model is now online and it is hoped that it will be tested with farmers before the year is out. Read more about it here:
Among the various ICTs, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques definitely represent a key resource for land planning and management. GIS offers the opportunity to gather multiple layers of information -coming from different perspectives- into one spatial representation. This is particularly useful to reach a consensus over land planning when different values and preferences are linked to a given territory. On the other hand, RS techniques represent a valuable tool for monitoring land resources (e.g. vegetation, water bodies, etc.), especially when a single institution is in charge of monitoring a wide area.
Retrieving in-situ data is expensive and time consuming; nevertheless, GIS&RS cannot substitute local observations and finding the appropriate balance between remote and in-situ monitoring is often a delicate issue. Moreover, it is essential to make any GIS&RS framework be based on a strongly participatory process in order to identify an appropriate and transparent application methodology. The process behind the deployment of GIS&RS has to be open and explicit to avoid that these technologies are used as a facade for hidden agendas to local communities.
PROGIS is an organisation that is working more then one decade on ICT solutions for agriculture-, forestry-, environment- and risk-management and cooperates with partners like Microsoft and their BING department for orthoimages as well as with Fujitsu (trustcenter), Adcon and Pessl (agro-weatherstations) etc.. I would like to highlight some benefits as we could find out during the last years at many installations: Technology must have orthoimages of a country as fundamental database (if possible 50cm or better), then one can build up a land parcel system with technologies like our WinGIS, can do advisory services or farm management with technologies like DokuPlant for planning, calculation, nutrient balance, carbon balance, start for traceability etc. and on top run logistics with mobGIS for farms and their partners to distribute or collect farm supplies or harvested goods. The benefits of such a four steps based technology are enormous and start from exact knowing where and how large is the field till use less fertilizer, drive less km, work more sustainable, have access to newest science know how, be part of a larger group with IT support, market your products better etc.. On top of the technology one can run applications for land consolidation, environmental management, carbon calculation, risk management etc.. The complexity is to find the right organisational models - in many cases public-private - that has to be worked out country for country taking into consideration the existing structures and local needs. Also for all integrated expert data local experts have to be part of a setup. Also when sometimes "small is beautiful" such technologies can be setup region- or country covering only to get neglectable prices per ha.
Ademola Braimoh has recently worked on a paper on land management use and land use planning, which was published at ARD in the World Bank this Feb. Though it doesn't go into depth on ICT, it is relevant to pracitioners using the technology to enhance green growth.
"Since its debut in the Philippines a year ago, Nutrient Manager for Rice Mobile (NMRiceMobile)—designed to give fertilizer guidelines to rice farmers via their mobile phones—is now available via smartphones with Android operating systems." “We wanted to make NMRice available on smartphones as a complement to existing Web and mobile phone applications of NMRice,” explains Dr. Roland Buresh, IRRI’s nutrient management expert and lead developer of NMRice. “NMRiceApp provides an additional way for rice farmers in the Philippines to obtain a fertilizer guideline for their crop."
Source: IRRI Media Releases "Feeding rice just got easier with smartphones"
What ICTs are being used to improve land management (e.g. soils) and land use planning? Are they effective? What are the main constraints?
"ICT has created unprecedented linkages between public and private institutions, governments, citizens and corporations. It has changed nearly all aspects of modern society, and seen a redesign of traditional structures, leading to developments such as eGovernment and digital education. ... But ICT cannot exist in isolation. It is not synonymous with technology, and African governments that consider their ICT policy a technology policy should think again. While it is vital for development, it is not a substitute for technological advancement in a broader sense." Ndubuisi Ekekwe Sci.Dev 2012.03-02
In the area of planning and management, the toughest challenges may be in identifying the target group of farmers where these efforts can make the most difference and in determining the best form of communication to provide access to the information within budgetory constraints.
In terms of risk management, determination of areas at risk must be followed up with information about availability of tools (seeds, fertilizers, machinery). This should include product catalogues of suppliers and comparitive reviews of products based on sustainability models.
One objective of climate smart agriculture is adaptation. How do land use planners, farmers and service providers think about changing whole farming systems in response to climate change? (Australia is quite advanced in thinking about "transfromative adaptation"). One possible tool is something that is now being worked on - analogue sites.
Among the various ICTs, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques definitely represent a key resource for land planning and management.
GIS offers the opportunity to gather multiple layers of information -coming from different perspectives- into one spatial representation. This is particularly useful to reach a consensus over land planning when different values and preferences are linked to a given territory. On the other hand, RS techniques represent a valuable tool for monitoring land resources (e.g. vegetation, water bodies, etc.), especially when a single institution is in charge of monitoring a wide area.
Retrieving in-situ data is expensive and time consuming; nevertheless, GIS&RS cannot substitute local observations and finding the appropriate balance between remote and in-situ monitoring is often a delicate issue. Moreover, it is essential to make any GIS&RS framework be based on a strongly participatory process in order to identify an appropriate and transparent application methodology. The process behind the deployment of GIS&RS has to be open and explicit to avoid that these technologies are used as a facade for hidden agendas to local communities.
PROGIS is an organisation that is working more then one decade on ICT solutions for agriculture-, forestry-, environment- and risk-management and cooperates with partners like Microsoft and their BING department for orthoimages as well as with Fujitsu (trustcenter), Adcon and Pessl (agro-weatherstations) etc.. I would like to highlight some benefits as we could find out during the last years at many installations: Technology must have orthoimages of a country as fundamental database (if possible 50cm or better), then one can build up a land parcel system with technologies like our WinGIS, can do advisory services or farm management with technologies like DokuPlant for planning, calculation, nutrient balance, carbon balance, start for traceability etc. and on top run logistics with mobGIS for farms and their partners to distribute or collect farm supplies or harvested goods. The benefits of such a four steps based technology are enormous and start from exact knowing where and how large is the field till use less fertilizer, drive less km, work more sustainable, have access to newest science know how, be part of a larger group with IT support, market your products better etc.. On top of the technology one can run applications for land consolidation, environmental management, carbon calculation, risk management etc.. The complexity is to find the right organisational models - in many cases public-private - that has to be worked out country for country taking into consideration the existing structures and local needs. Also for all integrated expert data local experts have to be part of a setup. Also when sometimes "small is beautiful" such technologies can be setup region- or country covering only to get neglectable prices per ha.
Ademola Braimoh has recently worked on a paper on land management use and land use planning, which was published at ARD in the World Bank this Feb. Though it doesn't go into depth on ICT, it is relevant to pracitioners using the technology to enhance green growth.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTARD/0,,contentMDK:23132824~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:336682,00.html
ARD has also been working on a database for soil carbon sequestration. That growing database can be found here:
http://www-esd.worldbank.org/SoilCarbonSequestration/
"Since its debut in the Philippines a year ago, Nutrient Manager for Rice Mobile (NMRiceMobile)—designed to give fertilizer guidelines to rice farmers via their mobile phones—is now available via smartphones with Android operating systems." “We wanted to make NMRice available on smartphones as a complement to existing Web and mobile phone applications of NMRice,” explains Dr. Roland Buresh, IRRI’s nutrient management expert and lead developer of NMRice. “NMRiceApp provides an additional way for rice farmers in the Philippines to obtain a fertilizer guideline for their crop."
Source: IRRI Media Releases "Feeding rice just got easier with smartphones"
irri.org/news-events/media-releases/feeding-rice-just-got-easier-with-smartphones